Democrats gathering in Denver for their nominating convention (why do they call them a nominating convention? We know who is selected..eh?) are significantly more nervous about Senator Barack Obama’s prospects this fall than they were a month ago, and are urging him to use the next four days to address weaknesses in his candidacy and lingering party divisions from the bitter primary fight. (Could some of the weakness besides the obvious, be a lot of non committal votes in the senate (present) and he has never run anything…community organizer yeah, but a million dollar decision?)

They plan to go after President Bush —and suggest that McCain (even though a well known maverick that makes conservatives nervous for his centrist bi-partisan views) is more of the same, and would use their time to draw sharp contrasts with Senator John McCain, particularly on the economy and Mr. McCain’s opposition to abortion rights. (That’s a good thing, right Martha?)

This is going to be about powerful words..words that work as they say to persuade and well, they just work.( I heard about that word book, maybe I need to purchase one eh?)

“The stakes of this election will be made very clear,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist. “We are going to define the choice.”

At the same time, acknowledging persistent unease with Mr. Obama among a significant segment of voters, ( must be talking here about those that work for a living, and cling to their bibles and guns, and don’t forget those that are pro life and are concerned about America’s security from terrorist’s ) his aides said they would use speeches and presentations during the next four days, including having Al Gore (This should reach all those that believe in Global Warming and never mind his carbon credits plan, Shucks, America can pay for the world’s smog and pollution…don’t ya know we are not paying enough for gas and oil now?) introduce Mr. Obama for his acceptance speech Thursday night, to offer a fuller biography and a more detailed plan of what he would do as president.

They said they were looking to 1992 as a model, when Bill Clinton successfully used his convention to address persistent questions about his personal life and what he would do as president.

In interviews, Democrats arriving here said they remained confident that Mr. Obama would leave Denver at the end of the week in a strong position to defeat Mr. McCain. But many Democrats made it clear that a convention they had once anticipated would be a breezy celebration of Mr. Obama had turned into a more sober and consequential event. (yeah, there are always consequences for choices we make, could you be talking about dissing HC? Florida? Michigan? by any chance?I really don’t knowwhat more she can do, she gave Nobama a hug, smiled and rallied the troops in speech and email and website..maybe a tear..just saying..Could you not have pretended she was on the list for your VP? Could you not have sucked up to her a little with keeping her in the loop of goings on? Jeepers Creepers, talk about people skills? After all, she got 18 million votes from supporters, Biden got what? 9,000 plus? Funny too how Florida and Michigan votes at your request will be entered at the convention, shame they were split up into 1/2 votes each during the primaries..guess that is politics..eh?)

Are you not the Man of Change? or is it the People’s change?

This reflected a summer that they said demonstrated Mr. Obama’s vulnerabilities (yeah, he’s all that )and Mr. McCain’s resilience,(yeah, he’s got plenty of that,don’t suppose it would have anything to do with experience or anything) and the signs of lingering divisions between some supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mr. Obama.

“Back in June and July, I truly thought he was going to blow McCain out of the water and carry 30 or 40 states,” said Donald Fowler, a former national Democratic chairman who supported Mrs. Clinton in the primary.(Yeah, the radical America hating far left has taken over the party when it comes to choice of candidate, just saying…don’t get mad at me, just look at his friends in LOOOOWW places, and remember all those looney celebs that adore him,)

Discussing the days ahead, Mr. Fowler continued: “Obama has got to do some things that will shore up his ability to lead — not just to charm, but to lead. ( Hey you said that!) They’ve got to give credibility to his understanding of foreign policy, his ability to deal with tough people and tough questions, and his ability to be more explicit and convincing on his health care policies and energy policies.”(Did you say that?)

Dennis McDonald, the Democratic chairman of Montana, a state that Mr. Obama is trying to win from Republicans, said this was a critical opening for Mr. Obama after a month in which polls suggested the race was tightening and events in Russia and Georgia put a new spotlight on foreign affairs. ( Yeah, This made it clear who I don’t want in a National or world crisis)

“Normally I might say these conventions are not so important, but I don’t think that’s the case this year,” Mr. McDonald said. “There seems to be a sense of urgency. We have had a couple of weeks that were not so good.”

For the most part, this is a confident if slightly anxious party. And many Democrats were cheered by the choice of Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware as Mr. Obama’s running mate, saying he had the potential to help address some of Mr. Obama’s political shortcomings. (Look, who is going to be the President, sure it helps to have someone to take over if the Pres suddenly resigned or went to Pres Heaven but for Pete’s sake, It’s about Nobama here and his leadership. the VP smiles and rallies the troops during the campaign whether he agrees with the Pres or not, and then longs for some action once the Pres takes the oval office, most of them are bored from what I have read. So we still got shortcomings and you said it too. uh huh, right!)

Still, Democrats said Mr. Obama should offer a concrete idea of what he would do as president, to counter his image as a showman. And they said he had to offer a tougher contrast with Mr. McCain. He and all the rest are going to make this a 4 day bash of McCain. (Never mind your change speech and change theme, that only works while you are ahead.)

“I think in the case of McCain, they need to frame him,” said Mr. Kerry, an early Obama supporter who four years ago was nominated by this party as its 2004 presidential nominee. “Viscerally, my feeling is they’vegot to come back at him hard. And they’ve got to do more to complete the task of definition.

Joe Trippi, who ran the presidential campaign of one of Mr. Obama’s rivals, John Edwards of North Carolina, said: “He has still got to get to the meat-and-potato, blue-collar workers. This is a big opportunity for him.” (I just pray that people will read Obama’s record, his true beliefs, and the numbers he proposes..they don’t add up. The numbers don’t work according to leading economists. Plus what working blue collar men and women want is employment and a chance for the American Dream…that means a job with a payday big enough to support a family, buy a home and educate their children and they want safety and respect. They do not want to give up American Sovereinty and chase jobs away..someone has to invest a lot of moola to start a business or invest in business that employs others.)

There are some things that may be beyond the control of the Obama campaign. Most pressingly, Democrats said they were worried that the tensions between supporters of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama from the contest that just ended two months ago would spill into public view after her name is entered into nomination, particularly after Mr. Obama bypassed Mrs. Clinton in choosing Mr. Biden.

“I have a lot of doubts that this convention is going to be as persuasive as it should be because they’ve got this damn thing with Hillary,” Mr. Fowler said. “I love Hillary. I was for her. But this is the worst political decision I could imagine. This is supposed to be an Obama celebration. You’re going to get the nomination of someone who came very close to winning and you’re going to get a lot of people in there cheering and hollering and some people booing.” (Oh I think everyone will behave and smile and fake it.look for more smooching!)

Mrs. Clinton’s advisers said Sunday that she would move to avoid this by meeting with her delegates on Wednesday and formally urging them to support Mr. Obama during the roll-call vote that night. ( I think she is being very helpful, what else you want her to do?) (Whether she releases them or not, under Democratic Party rules, delegates are permitted to vote for whomever they want). (They will go for Unity at least in public because they want to win.)

Still, several Democrats said they feared that even a clash between a small handful of Clinton and Obama supporters would draw disproportionate attention.

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a former Clinton ally (traitor actually, Betcha he is going to be in the cabinet) who came under attack by the Clinton campaign after he endorsed Mr. Obama, said: “There has got to be a full reconciliation between the Clinton people and the Obama people. I think the convention will put to rest any past divisions among supporters.”

The Obama campaign is leaving little to chance. ( Look for Hollywood style convention..glam, hope for the world, just be sure if you want a seat at the huge stadium, you gotta commit so many hours of volunteer work) It has created a rapid response team — led by Craig Smith, a former top operative in the Clinton world — to head out to the convention floor at the first sign of any trouble from Clinton supporters.

Mr. Obama’s campaign began sending out a one-page sheet of daily talking points to delegates, instructing them what to say and what to avoid in talking to reporters. (In one last week, according to a recipient, the central thrust was how to parry questions about Clinton-Obama strife and Mrs. Clinton’s speech by saying, “I can’t wait to hear Hillary Clinton talk about the future and am excited that her candidacy is unifying our party!”) whoo hoo, tell the robots what to say and what to avoid..after all, they don’t have a telepromter.

Listen, Maybe now Michelle will say she is proud of America ? Now there is just that ole Jeremiah guy, drats!

Isn’t it fun to watch when liberals get trapped in the little politically correct world they have created? That’s exactly what happened to Barack Obama after he called a woman ‘sweetie’. Normally that’s no big deal, but people these days realize they should be offended more often, and Obama actually had to call and apologize for calling someone ‘sweetie’. It’s sad yet funny at the same time, so does that mean I gotta start apologizing to everybody for calling somebody sweetie? How about Sugar lips?. just saying…..Y’all realize I would be apologizing all the time were I Politically Correct these days. Oh for the good ole days when I did not have to worry about offending anyone with a term of endearment or when I could not remember their name and thought Sweetie, Honey or Hon was so much better than ‘hey you’ and when men could open the door for a lady without getting a lecture. Of course, a lot of PC depends on where you live…Thank Goodness where I am we can do all the above and not really worry about the PC Police yet.

Lay off my wife

Barack Obama tells the GOP to lay off his wife. Well, Barack, perhaps you should tell your wife to lay off the anti-American commentary. People tend not to enjoy those comments very much. So if she keeps spewing the hate, then she should be able to take the heat. Watch Barack warn anyone who dares comment on his wife’s comments here.

Media saves Obama…again

The media’s man, Barack Obama, is managing to avoid any flack over saying that his Uncle liberated the prisoners at Auschwitz. Only problem with that little story is that the Soviets were the ones who liberated the Auschwitz camps. Hillary’s sniper fire comment on the other hand, was major news for a couple of weeks. The biggest problem with the whole situation is that the lesson Obama seemed to take away from his mysterious Uncle’s service—is that troops need more government money. Your uncle lived in the attack for six months after he came back…perhaps the lesson you should have taken away is that you don’t negotiate with someone who says they want to wipe Israel and the Jews off the map.

So, which one is worse: Barack’s “My uncle saved the Jews at Auschwitz” or Hillary’s “I was dodging sniper fire”?

To me—unless something unforeseen pops up—I have to say I still think Hillary’s is worse. The main difference? The event she lied about actually happened to her. It’s at least plausible that Obama remembered hearing stories of his uncle doing something heroic at another concentration camp, or another battlefield, or at least saving a kitten near a gun shop.

Obama is remembering something about his uncle in battle 60 years ago, I can give him a little break if he messes that up—assuming his uncle was actually was in the military, did fight in WW2, and wasn’t fighting for the other side—all of which have to be true. Obama couldn’t be that dumb.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve approximately the same amount of media that Hillary’s comment received—which was a lot. It will be interesting to see if the media gives Obama yet another free pass.

But as far as Hillary goes—she knew she hadn’t walked through an active war zone. She knew she didn’t dodge sniper fire. She knew she had a welcoming ceremony with a bunch of cute kiddies on the tarmac. She just manufactured a memory because she thought she’d get away with it—mainly because the media has been letting her get away with these sorts of things for a long time.

She has to realize that the media has chosen Obama to bethe chosen one.

Until she drops out, she has to live like a conservative.

Remember the rules: when you criticize, you are mean spirited.

When you question, you are fear mongering.

When you’re white, you’re racist.

Now go on out there and win yourself a campaign!

WE ADDED 10 MORE STATES? WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

Oh by the way, did you all hear anything about Obama claiming he had been in 57 states and had one to go and two of them he missed ? Uhmm…Excuse me, have we added 10 states lately? 🙂

MEDIA STRANGELY SILENT ABOUT OUR NEW STATES…

POINT BEING…I remember a certain VP candidate that could not spell potato and he was forever branded as DUMB..dumber than a box of rocks . Now we all know people get tired, make mistakes, for Petes sake. I have often said I am here to give others hope because I am really blonde inside. Or so I have been told..lol! Even Obama, and God help his opponents when they mess up. I do find it very interesting how the Media chooses their candidates and makes them a dandy..a dandy darlin..whatever! Then again, what do I know?

Defending Hillary

This political cycle has been frustrating for many conservatives this time around, but there has been one positive aspect out of this whole media love affair with Barack Obama: The Clinton’s have actually now admitted to a media bias existing. Glenn plays the audio of Bill Clinton saying that the media is against Hillary and that ‘he’s never seen anything like’ this before, the media hating a candidate. Welcome to the world of being a conservative politician in the media, Bill. Watch the video of President Clinton here. Glenn also played the audio of Hillary’s RFK comments that made so many headlines. Were they really as bad as the media said? Watch them here.

Hillary you must realize that the media has chosen Obama to bethe chosen one.

Democrats want Obama over Hillary, but some of Hillarys supporters still have on their boxing gloves…Really it would make a good GOP video.

Hillary’s friends in high places, former political supporters,& celebs have hung her out to dry. Howard Dean is biting at the bit, why won’t that woman quit? Sorry Dean, she wants to be like the Simpson jury…don’t want to acquit because then they must have quit.. No..

Hillary and her supporters will put on a good face and present a united front..but clinton supporters are wounded with the big guys & politics as usual supporting the Junior Senator with limited electoral experience..when was he first elected to political office? I believe it was 2004..

Obama has been compared to John Kennedy. JFK had been in office many years and had lots of experience under his belt…can’t compare him there. Of course, Don’t believe a group anything like Hamas woud have dared endorse Kennedy either.

Of course, it was another time.. a time before the radical 60’s came into being..where some of us witnessed bra burning, free sex, woodstock and the beginnings of Earth Day…lots of drugs, immorality was hot…divorce rate jumped to 50% between 1958 and the 70″s..fatherless homes, astronomical # of single moms trying to to raise children while she worked for 1/2 of their former income…Heck it was the beginning of Freedom..freedom from being chained in the prison of marriage .Join the Weathermen, SLS or SDS…ah,,it was the good times…Make Love not War..freedom from many rules, freedom from authority, freedom to burn old glory..freedom to sleep around with whoever you wanted whenever you wanted and just do what you want to do..don’t need any responsibility. pregnant? sorry about your luck…Heck it was the Beatles, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, a time of change and the Age of Aquarius..

WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY BABY !

And now we eat the fruit Aquarius bore…anyway, that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.

John McCain must be wondering where it all went wrong. Way back in 2001, the Senator joined with ultra-liberal Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold in championing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which was supposed to get the fat cats out of the election process. President Bush signed the legislation into law and it has become forever known as the “McCain-Feingold Act.”

Apparently, John McCain resented wealthy Americans gaining influence by giving politicians big dollars to finance their campaigns. He felt that gave unfair advantages to corporations and rich people. So the new law limited those campaign contributions, supposedly “empowering” the regular folks.

Enter radical left-wing billionaire George Soros, who quickly drilled a number of loopholes into the law. Realizing organizations could pour unlimited amounts of cash into the political process if they didn’t “endorse” a certain candidate, Soros and his far left guys set up MoveOn.org and other so-called “527 organizations” to wreak havoc during voting season.

Under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, a political organization can get tax-exempt status and spend unlimited money if it champions causes rather than specific candidates. You can’t use money to promote a “Vote for Hillary” theme; however, you can buy TV time saying Hillary is a bad woman, you can opine that McCain and the Iraq war are evil, and you can put forth that Obama hangs out with a nasty preacher.

Get the ruse? The money cannot be used to tell the folks whom to vote for, but it can be spent to demonize a candidate on the “issues.”

So now we learn that Soros and his merry band have put together a number of 527’s that will pony up an astounding $350 million for “issue” ads in the upcoming presidential campaign. That means much of that money will be used to pound John McCain into pudding.

So karma has visited Senator McCain. His vision of the folks controlling election funding is in tatters. Now,radical guys like Soros hold a tremendous amount of power, while regular Americans are limited in what they can contribute. Back in 2001, some astute political peoplewarned John McCain that the zealots would reap the rewards of his legislation, but he didn’t listen.

There is no question that a war chest of $350 million can do a lot of damage to any person or cause, especially when there’s no honesty involved, as these ideologues can say just about anything. The print and TV ads will be relentless —everything McCain stands for will be hammered. AfterSoros gets through with him, uninformed voters will think Genghis Khan is running on the Republican ticket.

In theory, Senator McCain tried to do the right thing with campaign finance reform—he wanted to limit the corrupting electoral power of overwhelming wealth. But Soros outsmarted him.

Now, McCain’s got a $350 million steamroller coming at him, reminding all of us of an old adage: “Be careful what you wish for.”

Well, Barack Obama should be one happy guy. His big victory in North Carolina has pretty much locked up the Democratic presidential nomination. Now, it is virtually impossible for Hillary Clinton to defeat him in the popular vote or in the elected delegate category.

Thus, Obama has the nomination won, unless another Reverend Wright crawls into the picture. Another Ayers, Another associate on trial for fraud, Michelle saying America is still mean and she is not proud of America until Obama ran, Another communist mentor, another another ..Obama taking the Muslim name of Barack versus Barry that he was called for years.. Forget the Hussein… Heck let’s just forget the issues folks, He is for everything This blogger is against.. He is a Junior Senator elected for the first time in office in 04…that’s a lot of experience..yeah right! Spinners who talk about re-votes in Florida and Michigan are dreaming; that will not happen. The Obama campaign would be foolish to participate. They played by the Democratic party’s rules and won. They’re not going to sanction do-overs. However, I heard today that they might be open to a deal..to keep from a big scene at the convention and to win the Hillary supporters support. btw, If the Democratic party went by the same rules as the Republicans, Hillary would have won. I think they changed the rules in the 70’s with George McGovern.

Also, as Al Sharpton told Bill O, any kind of superdelegate shenanigans will lead to massive demonstrations at the Democratic Convention in Denver which, of course, would be disastrous for the party.

Yeah, Sharpton lead your people to have a riot if you all are not happy and never mind the destruction and havoc you play with the innocent.

So, Obama seems to be in.

Now comes the hard part—convincing Americans that he is the best choice for president without all hell breaking loose on the race front.

Racism an issue in the election?

Thanks partly to Reverend Wright’s now immortal “the USA of KKK” remark, the race factor has emerged big time in this election. If you don’t believe me, just look at the vote in North Carolina and Indiana.

About 60 percent of whites voted for Hillary Clinton, as opposed to an astounding 90% of African-Americans pulling the lever for Obama. And working-class whites went even bigger for Clinton. No question there is a race divide.

Accepting that, Senator Obama has two basic problems in the race arena. First, militant blacks reinforce negativity on race, and these nuts just keep popping up. In addition to Wright, a black Philadelphia preacher, Derick Wilson, wrote in the Philadelphia Daily News that Barack Obama is a “house negro” for not supporting Wright.

Of course, that is insane, and a responsible newspaper would not have printed the lunacy. But in this hyper-partisan country, race-baiters will find a forum, and every time stuff like that gets exposure, racial animus comes back.

Obama’s second dilemma is convincing skeptical white voters that he and his wife are sympathetic to their concerns. Let’s be honest—few white Americans would tolerate a Reverend Wright for five minutes, much less 20 years. And Obama’s comments in San Francisco about blue collars seeking refuge in guns and church hurt him badly.

So, the Senator must clarify his philosophy without belaboring the issue. Even with his verbal eloquence, that will not be easy.

I do not expect Obama or Senator McCain to dwell on race, but, surely, some of their surrogates and the media will exploit the issue to the fullest. Any kind of perceived racial comment will be splashed all over the place.

That, of course, will be bad for the country and bad for the candidates. But it’s coming. No question.

Meanwhile before the press could report the breaking news of their fall??? from the plane……the people speculated on the latest news:

John McCain apologizes for going to Vietnam, earns Jane Fonda’s endorsement-then promptly did an about face and went over to Obama.
To avoid scorn and ridicule, Tom Cruise converts to Islam
NY Times: Backward, close-minded, inbred southern hicks vote for Obama

Obama: baby is punishment; tax increase is bundle of joy
Obama denounced extreme statements in Osama’s new tape but urged voters to listen to the entire message before making judgment

Obama’s speech calls for change in stereotyping “the typical White person”
Hillary distances self from Rush Limbaugh but not from his Operation Chaos: “I can no more disown him than I can disown the crossover Republican voters”
Rhett Butler Clinton and Scarlet O’Clinton’s house in ruins. Plantation empty. New supply of undocumented workers expected soon

Al Gore’s children receive carbon credits for Winter Solstice Holiday
Democrats call for troop surge in the War on Bush

In a campaign speech given in Valparaiso, Indiana, New York senator and presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton reasserted her passionate support of the Second Amendment. “You know, I remember when my father taught me how to shoot. We would go out for a full auto shoot and barbeque every Sunday after church, unless we were going on visitation with our pastor.” The senator reminisced about the first time she fired a grenade launcher, “Pardon me for chuckling, but I remember firing a panzerschrek my father brought home from the war. My little brother Tony was standing behind me and, in a moment of forgetfulness – I was so excited to fire a grenade launcher, I forgot to check the backblast area! Poor Tony’s hair was singed, and he hasn’t been quite the same ever since.”

When the laughter died down, Senator Clinton’s tone became more serious, “But you know, growing up around guns trained me for the situations I would face later in life. When I look at all the expert badges I earned in the Army, when I think of how I survived the Tet offensive, when I recall the happy times I had as a tactical small arms instructor, and when I remember taking out three snipers in Bosnia, I just breathe a short prayer of thanks for my father’s wisdom in teaching me how to handle guns responsibly.”

Contrasting herself with her Democrat opponent, Mrs. Clinton went on to say, “You know, this is where I differ with Osama, I mean Obama – I really didn’t mean that – people will think I’m trying to bring up his Muslim past, and that’s the farthest thing from my mind, let me tell you. Anyway, while I have been a supporter of our precious Second Amendment from as far back as I can remember, and a lifetime member of the NRA, Osama, ha-ha, there I

go again, Obama wants to take away our right to defend ourselves from other Muslim terrorists. Let me tell you something,” she said to a rising crescendo of hoots and cheers, her voice growing louder over the increasingly thunderous applause, “I’m proud of my A+ rating with the NRA, and I’m sick and tired of people telling us that we only cling to our guns out of bitterness, and I am ready, I am ready from day one to protect our rights as gun owners as vigorously as I defended the people of Tuzla!!

When a reporter from FOX News asked about previous statements she had made about the need for more extensive gun control, Hillary responded with, “HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!” The same reporter fell to the floor with his hands over his ears and was removed by paramedics amidst jeers from other news media and Hillary supporters.

By Red Square

Dodging the flak over his description of typical small-town rednecks as those who turn to guns and Bibles if left without government supervision, Obama has once again skillfully turned the tables on his opponents with the same maneuver he used during the Jeremiah Wright “controversy”: he returned to Philadelphia and delivered a sweeping speech on the legacy of rednecks in a post-redneck society and the importance of establishing a full government control over the redneck territories – a speech that political strategists agree hearkens back to those of America’s founders, and deserves a similar place in history.

Obama, who grew up in the redneck-free paradise of Hawaii, could have easily stepped into a cultural void of corporate middle-class indifference if he hadn’t embraced the winning theory of class warfare and challenged the country to do better – to drop the old redneck values of self-reliance, and to accept the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be considered in their relation to the State

Below are excerpts from Sen. Obama’s speech.

“We the people, in order to form a more soviet union…” With these simple words, social workers and community organizers had traveled across the ocean to establish a state of planned economy and redistribution of wealth according to everyone’s needs.

The state they produced ultimately remained unfinished.It was stained by the presence of corncob-smokin’, banjo-strokin’ chicken-chokin’ inbred hillbilly rednecks, who undermined the great American experiment with their distrust of a strong government. They continued to cling to their guns and Bibles, and refused to sacrifice their personal liberties to the Common Good as defined by the government. The rednecks brought the creation of a perfect society to a stalemate, and so the founders gave up and postponed any definitive solution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the redneck question was already embedded within our Constitution, which has at its very core the subjugation of the individual to a strong centralized government, requiring the surrender of all unauthorized guns, Bibles, and incomes.

Our founders Marx and Engels believed that the government was endowed with unalienable rights to regulate life, ration liberty, and dispense happiness – and that to secure these rights, governments must decide what’s best for the governed, redistribute their property, and indoctrinate their children.

Now, the rednecks will argue that the Constitution says something completely different. But we mustn’t allow rednecks to rewrite our Constitution. We mustn’t allow some small-town, god-crazy, gun-humping non-people to inject bitterness into our brave new world of collective hope, planned tolerance, and organized compassion.

Today, when the promise of the parchment has almost come true, it is up to this generation to find a final solution to the redneck problem. We must redouble the government’s efforts to control lives, ration liberty, and dispense happiness. We must close the gap between our ideals and reality, even if it means shredding the reality to pieces. Can we do it? Yes we can!

It is up to this generation to make the word “redneck” a non-word, completing the construction of a post-redneck society.

I hope none of you are rednecks.

I shall conclude my historic speech by addressing critics who say I’m out of touch with reality.

I would like to show them a letter of support that was sent to me by a nice small-town family of hillbillies. It consisted of only a few lines scribbled over a black and white photograph – a large redneck family in front of a shabby old cracker house. The house needed some serious renovation and was probably in danger of foreclosure. The haggard faces of adults expressed bitterness and determination to fight for whatever little piece of entitlement the government can give them. The children’s eyes revealed the sadness of a child who had been robbed of the true love and compassion of a caring social worker. They were the typical small-town Americans in need of guidance and support of big centralized government – exactly how I had always imagined them.

The note on the photo said,

Y’all cum n’save us, Bawrock Whosane Obomber! We done fell through the Clinton gubbermint net, and the Bush gubbermint net too, so’s we is a gettin’ bitter as bitteroot, we cling to silly ol’ guns, that ol’ time religion, and we been shootin’ folks that ain’t like us, as a way to ‘splain the lack of gubbermint supervision over our po’ simple redneck lives.
Jus’ don’t give nuthin’ fer free to those expletive deletive McCoys.

XOXOXO,
The Hatfield Clan

views from the top:Keith Olbermann, unbiased news anchor:Obama was right to call the rednecks the untermenchen. Rednecks won’t go away by themselves. They’re too much a part of our national fabric to think that we can move on and make progress as a society without having to eliminate rednecks as a class. We must do it for our children.

Fritz Olbermann, college student and Obama supporter:Some of Obama’s words were too harsh for my taste. But wouldn’t the world be a better place if all rednecks are put in box cars and deported to some re-education camp or something? Let them live there until they are fit to mix with more enlightened people, like my Dad. Besides, we can redistribute the redneck houses to the more deserving, like the homeless, or the drug-addicted Americans who can’t pay their mortgages. It worked out well for Joseph Stalin with the kulaks. If anything, it might solve the housing problem.

Howard Zinn, historian:
Obama correctly identified the problem. This is also why the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud of 1878-1891 happened. Those families fell through the safety nets of the Cleveland and Harrison administrations, and they got bitter. They discovered guns and religion, and began to shoot people who weren’t like them as a way to explain their frustrations.

Please don’t be like Deval Patrick!

Is Obama Deval Patrick II? Obama didn’t steal the words of his buddy Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts. He borrowed them. OK. But what are the other similarities between Obama and Patrick? The two pols have a lot in common even aside from shared rhetoric. Has Patrick’s term been a success, or has it been a cautionary example of a promising, race-transcendant Democrat squandering his mandate by governing as a hack interest-group liberal? Fred Siegel has an answer to this question. Excerpt:

Patrick’s governorship is the closest thing we have to a preview of the “politics of hope”—and that governorship has been a failure to date. As Joan Vennochi observes in the Boston Globe, “Democrats who control the Legislature ignored virtually every major budget and policy initiative presented by a fellow Democrat.” Patrick’s record in office, Vennochi concludes, “shows that it can be hard to get beyond being the face of change, to actually changing politics.” His stock has sunk so markedly that Hillary Clinton carried the state handily against Obama in the Democratic primary despite, or perhaps because of, Patrick’s support for his political doppelgänger.

In one area, however, Patrick has achieved some of his goals. In thrall to the state’s teachers’ unions, he has partly rolled back the most successful educational reforms in the country. Most states gamed the federal testing requirements that were part of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. But Massachusetts, thanks to Republican governors William Weld and Mitt Romney, created the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability to ensure that the state’s testing methods conformed closely to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—federal tests that are the gold standard for measuring educational outcomes. In 2007, Massachusetts became the first state to achieve top marks in all four categories of student achievement. One of Patrick’s first efforts as governor was to eliminate the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability. [E.A.]

Isn’t it incumbent on those prominent NEA-bashing neoliberal Obama supporters to explain just why his term as president won’t quickly descend into a Patrick-like interest-group quagmire? Jon Alter, this means you! And Charles Peters as well. … P.S.: Patrick could function as Obama’s wrang-wrang, Vonnegut’s term for a pioneer who by his bad example steers others away from a false course. Before neolibs go into a permanent campaign swoon, shouldn’t Obama send them at least a subtle signal that he understands this?